Page 179 - From the Outhouse 4 -21

179 | P A T R I C I A R A E M E R R I T T W H A T L E Y

My Five-Year Plan

At age 37, when I returned to Sanford, I began sculpting a five-year plan for my life:

1. Re-center my Christian life

2. Buy my own home

3. Obtain my Master’s degree
4. Form my own business

5. Carefully select date-mates.

As I began to re-direct my life in Sanford, I knew that I had to become affiliated with a church. I may have been a pseudo-Christian,

but I never neglected my attendance or service as a member of a church. My confession is that I wasn’t totally obeying God’s
commandments, but I was too fearful not to comply in some manner. I made sure Kamili received the same kind of Christian

teachings as I did. The incident that follows gives credence to my philosophy.

On Sundays, I would send my son to Sunday School without me. Since we lived so close to our church, I would escort him around

the corner and watch him walk about two blocks to the church. After about four or five solo visits, Kamili told me, “If you do not
want to go to Sunday School, neither do I.” This was a rude awakening, and he was so right that I couldn’t argue the point. My mother

never sent me to church – we went together. First of all, she was a Sunday School teacher, and she would recruit neighborhood

children to take them to church. Really, I had no choice.